Day Six - Tuesday, July 5: Pastor's Conference

Sleep was crazy again; not much of it after 3 a.m. I actually turned it into a great time of meditation, praying, and planning. Up at seven as Impact Ndola really gets underway today. Chapel was set for eight and Scott Savage from Houston brought the message which was a great encouragement for the week. Resurrection is all around us and moving through us here in Ndola. And from Ephesians 3: We are strengthened with power, rooted and established in love. It’s not on our shoulders; it’s the holy spirit in us.

Off to the Pastor’s Conference. At about nine our team headed back to Ndola Baptist Church for the start of the Pastor’s Conference. In the end there was only Duane Brooks, Maxie Burch, Scott Savage, (these were the pastors) and me, Charlie Stroop, and Harry Savage, the laymen.

I was kind of surprised that this was all there were especially since we were going to be working with up to 150 pastors.

We began with some great worship. Singing and rhythm like nothing you have seen. No inhibition here, but it’s the culture and a beautiful one at that.

Spiritual Formation. Dr. Duane Brooks from Houston lead the teaching beginning around 9:30 with the general topic of spiritual formation.

We started discussing God’s call focusing on the all of David in Psalm 78 and I Samuel 16:1-13 and our call to be shepherds. Steve B. this reminded me so much of all our discussions on shepherding. Duane discussed further the need need for humility, integrity and ability in all we do as pastors.

Small Group Time. This teaching went on until about 11:30 when we broke into our small groups. Mulenga from Northrise broke them into groups of six by having them count off 1-6. I took group two and we met in the corner behind where the musicians were on Sunday. I had half sheets of paper ready and had them give me their name, church name, email address if they had one, a prayer request for their church and one for themselves. Then I had each of them share their call into the pastorate and that was a great time hearing each of their stories. We also began discussing our need for humility, but soon the time was gone and it was time for lunch.

We had sack lunch while the pastors ate Zambian food. At the end of the meal Mulenga brought us a tray with hot water and coffee and tea to enjoy.

In the afternoon Dr. Brooks spoke on our authority and power in Christ. Then from Paul’s time with the Thessalonians the qualities of a successful ministry and how we can best be caring for souls in I Thessalonians 2.

We broke at about 3:30 for a half an hour of small group time and I got two new pastors in my group. At a little after four we came back for announcements and closing in prayer.

The bus was there and we dropped the first group off at the Michaelangelo and them we arrived back at Caravelle.

Here are the names of the pastors I worked with today so you can begin praying for them.

1. Dumisani Carlos Phiri - a student from Northrise

2. Rev. Rabbi Kalebwe

3. Pastor Ackim Phiri

4. Clive Mphande Nglazi

5. Pastor Thomas Swedor

6. Evangelist Williamson P. Ngulube

7. Pastor Zebedia Lungu

8. Pastor Weston A. Musukwa

9. Pastor Charles Chikwindi

10. Pastor Muzala Muzala

11. Pastor Amos Kalenga

After lunch these two joined our group

12. Brian Ian Chellah

13. Brother Humphrey

Pastor Charles Chikwindi